Preparation of ethylidenediamines



United States Patent Ofiice 3,236,835

Patented Feb. 22, 1966 change in which one or both amino groups of the ethylidenediamine are replaced:

3 236 835 PREPARATION OFETTTYLIDENEDIAMINES R R4 R1 Warren J. Rahourn, Lake Jackson, Tex., assignor to The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Mich., a corpora- 5 N l of l l d N 24 1961 S N 155 534 R1 R5 Ra o rawmg. r e 0v. er. 0.

15 Claims. c|.260-2s9 E f" NCHN NCHN\ The present invention relates to ethylidenediamines and R1 to processes for making such compounds. Vinylamines suitable for use as the first reactant in the The compounds of the invention having the formula above equation include the dialkylvinylamines wherein A CH(CH3)A, the alkyl radicals are the same or dilferent, the alkenylalkylvinylamines, the dialkenylvinylamines, the N-vinyl- WhereiIlAand A'repfesent dialkylamim,dialkenylamino, 15 azacycloalkanes, and the like. Specific amines include alkylalkenylamino or morpholino radicals or radicals havdimethylvinylamine, methylethylvinylamine, diethylvinyling the formula. amine, dibutylvinylamine, dioctylvinylamine, diallylvinyl- QH (CH amine, allylmethylvinylamine, dihexenylvinylamine, octylcrotylvinylamine, di(methallyl)vinylamine, N-vinylaziwherein n is an integer from 1 to 5. Thus, they can be Iidine, filefidine, -Pyfr01idi11fi, P p Y P- represented by the formula tane, and the like.

R CH3 R2 Amines suitable for use as the second reactant in either of the above reactions include dialkylamines, alkylalken- N CH N ylamines, dialkenylamines, azacycloalkanes, and the like. R1 R3 Thus, one can use dimethylamine, diethylamine, dihexylwherein i thiS and succeeding f l R, R1 R2 and R3 amine, dioctylamine, methylbutylamine, butylallylamine, are the same or dilferent organic radicals and wherein amylfnethanylammeg l fq dicrQtYhmine, q fi i h h pair R and R1 or h i R2 and R3 or both, ylarmne and the like, aziridlne, azetidine, pyrrohdme, may be joined together to form with the N to which P P? and they are attached a morpholino radical or a radical hav- In addltlon to the Pbove Second group of ammes: j h f r ul ous di-secondary-amines free of interfering groups can CHPwHa) be used in the process of the invention. Among such i l are piperazine, and N,N'-dialkyl-alkylenediamines; for r example, N,N-dimethylor dibutyl-ethylenediamine or wherein n has tha afofesald meanlng- -propylenediar'nine. When such diamines are used, the CQIIIPOUHdS 0f the above yp are P d by t resulting product may be the bis(1aminoethyl)ethylene Secondary amine, z a, with 613161 a diamine formed by a reaction analogous to that shown vlnylamlm having The formulaby the above equation or, if the configuration of the di- R 40 amine is such as to favor ring closure, an imidazolidine or analogous heterocyclic product. Thus, from piperazine the product having the following formula can be made:

R OH OH R or an ethylidenediamine having the formula N ;\I N JH N R CH R R1 R R1 Further reaction with additional piperazine produces polymeric resins. Similarly, N,N-dimethylethylenediwherein R and R are radicals selected from the same amme Produces mmany Product having the formula group as are R, R R and R and wherein at least one 1H: C H: of the ammo radicals H 1, 3 EI N Or R\ on; on; (13H; on, /R and /N( JNCHzCHzNCHN dependlng on the proportions of reactants used. The R5 first of these products can be cyclized to produce the corresponding imidazolidine by an intramolecular amine in- 1s different from the corresponding group in the reactant terchange; amine, RQNHRg. The reaction with the vinylamine is a 5 R CH3 CH3 s1mple addition to the v1nyl double bond.

NCHNOHCH;NHOH; R R1 H:CN NCH NCH=CH HN /N-CHN\ R1 R3 R R3 (IT/H;

The reaction with the ethylidenediamine is an amine inter- Because of the ease with which this cyclization occurs,

the imidazolidine is usually the principal product actually isolated from the above reaction.

The above vinylamine reaction proceeds vigorously at room temperature without any catalyst. Since it is strongly exothermic, it is usually advisable to provide cooling means to control the temperature during the mixing of the reactants. The amine interchange reaction is slower but proceeds readily without a catalyst at temperatures of 20-100 C.

The processes of the invention are especially useful for the preparation of unsymmetrical ethylidenediamines; that is, products having the formula shown above wherein R and R are not the same as R and R respectively, this being a genus for which no practical synthesis has as rapidly as it is formed, thus accelerating the reaction and driving it toward completion.

The vinylamine addition reaction and the ethylidene diamine amine interchange reaction can, and usually do, proceed concurrently. Thus, in the above examples, the corresponding symmetrical ethylidenediamines were obtained in low yields even though the proportions of reactants were deliberately chosen to disfavor this result.

' These products are tabulated in Table 'II, the example numbers corresponding to those in Table I. Example 8, in which'aniline was the reactant amine, does not appear in Table I because none of the asymmetrical ethylidenediamine was isolated.

Table II heretofore been available.

The practice of the invention is illustrated by the 1501- SYMMETRICAL ETHYLIDENEDIAMINES lowing examples. CH3

GENERAL PROCEDURE ';H N One-half mole of N,N-dimethylvinylamine was mixed R; R: at room temperature with one-half mole of a secondary amine and the mixture was allowed to stand 1 8 hours, R2 after which the reaction mixture was fractionally dis- Example 13.15%, Pres- Yield, t1lled under reduced pressure to isolate the correspond- N Sure, 1425 mm. cent mg l-(dnnethylamino)-l- (subst1tuted am1no)ethane. The 5 R; results of several typical experiments are shown in the following table. Diallylamlno 75-76 2.0 1.4725 0.8480 11 Table I Piperidino 85-88 2.5 1. 4828 .9098 22 l 6H9 3'3 it??? '3i28 i2 yrroi ino 66 ETHYLIDENEDIAMINES Aniline 47-52 0.5 1.6008 1.0600 49 l-Dimethylamino-l-(Substituted Amino) Ethane CH3 CH3 65-70 110-0 1-4345 Ex- Yield, I ample B 25 Per- IN N- 25 No. See.Am1ne .P., 0. ND (1 cent CHFHZ 3min a The product was 1 2 3 trimethylimidazolidine and was made by the Dlmethyl 46 (80 "57 5' reaction of one mole each of N,N-dimethylethylenediamine and di- 822 37 methylvinylamine. 133, 5 3 The production of symmetrical ethylidenediamines in igzirldliiIeisfi 52 0 2 .835 60 the reaction of an N-vinyl tert.-amine with the amine yuo (1 5 47 R NHR is greatly increased by the use of more than Other non-aromatic secondary amines free of reactive substituents can be used instead of the secondary amines shown above, the products being the corresponding ethylidenediamines. Such secondary amines include dipropylamine, dibutylamine, methylethylamine, allylpropylamine, alkyl-substituted aziridines, pyrrolidines, piperidines, morpholines, piperazines and the like wherein the alkyl radicals are attached to a carbon atom in the ring, and in general, the non-aromatic secondary amines.

While the above examples show the use of dimethylvinylamine as one of the reactants, other vinyl tertiary amines can be used similarly to prepare the corresponding ethylidenediamines. Suitable amines include diethyl-, dipropyl-, dibutyland other dialkylvinylamines, diallyl-, propylallyland 'butylallylvinylamines, heterocyclic nonaromatic vinylamines, such as N-vinyl-a ziridine, -pyrrolidine, -piperidine, -morpholine, and the like, and in general, any N-vinyl tertiary amine free of interfering substituents. Many of these vinyl tertiary amines are known and others can be made by the same general procedures used for the known compounds. Others can be made by the procedures disclosed in British Patent 832,078 or those described in my copending application for United StatesPatent entitled Process for Preparation of N,N-Dialkylvinylamines, Serial No. 114,681, filed June 5, 1961, now US. Patent 3,149,164. The amine interchange reaction can be etfected by allowing a mixture of an ethylidenediamine and a secondary amine to stand several hours, or even days, at room temperature or, preferably, by gently heating the mixture. Suitable temperatures are, for instance, about 20 to 100 C. When, as is usually the case, the byproduct amine has a lower boiling point than the reactant amine, the former can be distilled from the reaction mixture one molar equivalent of the latter, based on the vinylamine, and by the use of elevated temperatures (e.g., 30- C.) and longer reaction times and, when feasible, by the removal of the by product amine as it is formed.

When azacycloheptane (hexamethyleneimine) was reacted with dimethylvinylamine as in the above examples, little of the expected 1-(dimethylamino)-l-(N-azacycloheptyl)ethane was obtained. Two other products were isolated, N-vinylazacycloheptane and the dimer of the latter, 1,3-bis(N-azacycloheptyl)-1-butene. Both of these latter products are valuable as vinyl monomers and can be polymerized and copolymerized by the methods used with other N-vinyl monomers.

The ethylidenediamines of the invention are useful for a wide variety of purposes. They contain two basic tertiary amino groups. These make the compounds useful as organic bases. Such bases are widely used as absorbers for acid gases, such as carbon dioxide, hydrogen chloride and hydrogen sulfide, and as. catalysts for a wide variety of chemical reactions. By thermal decomposition at about 250400 C. they lose one amino group and produce an N-vinyl tertiary amine which may be different from that used in the above synthesis. The latter, in turn, can be catalytically hydrogenated to produce the corresponding N-ethyl tertiary amines, a class for which no other practical general synthesis is available.

In addition to the above uses, the novel compounds of" the invention are useful as pesticides, including such diverse activities as insecticides, rodenticides, and nematocides. Thus, for example, l-aziridinyl-l-dimethylaminoethane, the product of Example 6, is 100% efiective in killing mice when fed at a dosage of 0.1 g. per kilogram of animal weight. Similarly, l,1-bis(dimethylamino)ethane, the product of Example 1, when mixed with soil at a dosage of 10 parts per million, is 100% effective in killing root-knot nematodes. Beside being active in free radical polymerizations, the allylamine derivative of EX- ample 3 shows utility as a soil-bonding agent. Some of the amines, particularly the pyrrolidinyl derivative of EX- ample 7, are toxic to certain harmful insects when applied as dusts or sprays.

The ethylidenediamines of the invention are useful as chemical intermediates. For instance, they can be used to make vinylamines as disclosed in my copending application cited above. Such vinylamines arevaluable monomers which can be polymerized and copolymerized by conventional techniques used with other N-vinyl compounds. The compounds of the invention can also be cleaved to make the corresponding N-halomethyl-tertiaryamines as taught by Bohme and Hartke, Ber. 93, 1305 (1960).

I claim:

1. The process for making a compound having the formula CH .A(|JHA wherein A and A represent amino radicals selected from the group consisting of dialkylamino, dialkenylamino, alkylalkenylamino and morpholino radicals and radicals having the formula wherein n is an integer from 1 to 5, said process comprising the steps of reacting by contacting a first amine having the formula AH with a second amine having the formula A-CH=CH2 wherein A and A have the same significance as above.

2. The process defined in claim 1 wherein the first amine is a dialkylamine.

3. The process defined in claim 1 wherein the first amine is a dialkenylamine.

4. The process defined in claim 1 wherein the first amine is morpholine.

'5. The process defined in claim 1 wherein the first amine has the formula wherein n is an integer from 1 to 5.

6. The process defined in claim 1 wherein a dialkylamine is reacted by contacting with an N-vinyldialkylamine.

7. The process defined in claim 1 wherein a dialkenylamine is re acted with an N-vinyldialkylamine.

8. l-aziridinyl-l-(dimethylamino)ethane.

9. The process defined in claim 1 wherein A represents the aziridinyl radical.

10. The process for making 1-( 1-aziridinyl)-1-(dimethylamino)ethane comprising reacting by contacting aziridine with N,N-dimethylvinylamine.

11. The process defined in claim 7 wherein the dialkenylamine is diallylamine.

12. The process for making 1-(diallylamino)-1-(dimethylamino)ethane comprising reacting by contacting diallylamine with N,N-dimethylvinylamine.

13. The process for making 1-(1-piperidino)-l-(dimethylamino)ethane comprising reacting by contacting piperidine with N,N-dimethylvinylamine.

14. The process for making 1-(4-morpholinyl)-1-(dimethylamino)ethane comprising reacting by contacting morpholine with N,N-dimethylvinylamine.

15. The process for making 1-(1-pyrrolidinyl)-1-(dimethylamino)ethane comprising reacting by contacting pyrrolidine with N,N-dimethylvinylamine.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,270,681 1/ 1942 De Groote 260583 2,675,382 4/1954 Melamed 260247.5 3,025,313 3/ 19 62 Gunderson 260-2475 3,046,274 7/1962 Bohme et al. 260247.5

IRVING MARCUS, Primary Examiner 

1. THE PROCESS OF MAKING A COMPOUND HAVING THE FORMULA 